Nathan Loretta/Final
Nathan Loretta is a human-Esper and leader of the Esper Order in Attack on To'kustar on Earth-404. A former member of the Regional Squad Corps, he originally joined Squad 12 alongside Connor Yan and Kathryn but was later promoted to Squad 1 to team with Penny Blair and Jack Eastview. Born in 491 in Hyperborea, Nathan was kept secret by his parents due to the city's strict ban on children. When he was six years old, he was discovered by the city's leadership, who threatened to take him away from his parents in order to punish them. For three years, his parents fought for his custody, and by the time he was nine, with his powers developing far earlier than typical, he ran away from home. He joined the military, completing his basic training by the time he was 11. After considering the Explorer Division and spending two extra years training for that branch, he ultimately joined Squad 12; after an uneventful year, To'kustars began appearing, and so Nathan went with his squad to Ateria, where he helped escort a group of citizens to Teviv. That group later became a special inter-branch military group known as the Counter Forever Knights Task Force, of which Nathan was a member. Nathan also discovered that one of the members of this group, Hadria Carter, was an Esper, and slowly began to tell her about Espers, the Esper Order, and together, the two learned about the history of Espers and Daniel Fermi's quest to find the Esperheart. Nathan later traveled to Percival and met Claire Reiford, a princess of the royal family, and also an Esper, who joined him on their quest to stop Fermi from recovering the Esper Heart. Nathan also fought in the Second Knights-Order War on the side of the World Army and Esper Order. Following the Battle of Plutonon and the deaths of many major military personnel, Nathan and Jack Eastview were promoted to Squad 1, joining Penny Blair. Despite the defeat of the Knights in the battle, the war continued, with Fermi now directly leading the Knights. As the latter began a plan to seize control of the military by corrupting the royal family and the government, Nathan worked with the government and Order to stop him. During the Second Battle of Plutonon, Nathan was interrupted by an Esper messenger from Hyperborea, alerting him that the city was under attack by To'kustars. As the battle continued, Nathan gathered all the Espers in the city, retreating and making their way north, which resulted in the capital falling to the Knights. In Hyperborea, Nathan learned that his mother, desperate to find her son, had betrayed the Order and joined Fermi's faction. As the Battle of Hyperborea raged on, the final missing pieces of the Esperheart were found, resulting in the final confrontation with Fermi. Nathan ultimately defeated the dark Esper, with the help of others, and stood by as Penny sealed Fermi's powers. Following Fermi's defeat, Nathan discovered a large spaceship hidden within the Light Castle, though it would be many years before anything was learned about the ship. All of the battles and fighting over, Nathan then became the leader of a new, peaceful Esper Order. He reunited with his parents in Hyperborea, and married Hadria Carter, whom he had always had feelings for, but truly fell in love with during their quest to rewrite history by traveling into the past. Six years after marriage, Nathan and Hadria had a son, Trevor, named after Trevor Faraday, who was an Esper just like his parents. Physical appearance An Esper, Nathan is a Caucasian male who is mentally 24 years old. In his preferred physical appearance, he appears 24 years old and is 1.83 meters (6 feet) tall with short black hair and hazel eyes. While on duty, he wears the standard military uniform, with the jacket specialized for the Regional Squad Corps. In his true form, he is slightly shorter, only 1.75 meters (5 feet, 9 inches) tall. He also appears less muscular in this form, though he is still as strong. Generally, he has been seen wearing traditional Hyperborean clothing while at his true age. At other ages, Nathan has been depicted as having longer hair, and even facial hair, which he has no trace of in either his true or preferred ages. Generally, he does not get much taller than 6 feet, but he has been as short as 1.12 meters (3 feet, 8 inches) when he shifted into the appearance of a four year old in Espers of Percival. He is capable in combat against multiple opponents, human or To'kustar. He has a muscular build, having trained for several years with the army. As the series progresses, and Nathan continues his training, he becomes stronger and more agile. Personality Nathan is very reserved around people he doesn't know well or has just met, though with his closer friends, he is very confidant and outgoing. According to Nathan himself, growing up in Hyperborea, where there are not many other children, certainly played a factor in his shy, reclusive nature. Being an Esper, he feels more comfortable keeping things to himself and not telling others his secrets, out of fear of hurting others. He has even gone so far as to not even telling other Espers he meets, including Hadria and Claire, about Espers in general and their specific powers. Important history Early life Nathan was born in Lower Hyperborea, in 491, to Owen and Roselyn Loretta, and kept secret from the rest of the city due to the ban on children. His powers as an Esper developed far faster than usual: by the age of 7, he had fully mastered his ability to shift ages. Prior to this, he was discovered by the Hyperborean authorities; to punish his parents for violating the child ban, they threatened to take Nathan away, but his parents fought for his custody for three years. During this time, Nathan met several high ranking members of the Esper Order, including Trevor Faraday, Mikhail Einstein, Penny Blair, Ethan Archibald, and Leo Goldberg. It was at this time that Nathan and the Order discovered his immense powers over space and time. To prevent that power from falling into the wrong hands, Archibald possessed Nathan and swapped powers with him. Goldberg then sealed Nathan's true memories of the incident, along with his memories about the true nature of his new power: being to swap powers with other Espers by possessing them. Blair then sealed Archibald's powers, preventing them from being used at all. However, Nathan still had the custody issue to deal with. Shortly after turning nine, Nathan decided to take matters into his own hands, when he fled Hyperborea. After a few months of traveling southwards, he arrived at Plutonon, where he used his age shifting abilities to reach satisfactory age to join the World Army. After completing his training at Percival, Nathan opted to undergo additional training to become a member of the Explorer Division. After spending two additional months in Percival, he set out on the 18-month survival training with Harrison, Fletcher, Oswald, Tyson, and McCarthy, to the Forest of Geller. A month into the mission, the six soldiers prepared to make camp at a pond within the forest. On the way to the pond, Oswald, Tyson, and McCarthy teased Nathan about his preference to be alone and about his family. After dropping stuff off at the pond, Fletcher ordered Nathan to return to the forest to collect firewood. While originally complying, Nathan, angered by the comments made on the way there, decided to brutally murder the other five soldiers in the group, later dumping their bodies into the frozen pond. Nathan later revealed that he killed the group specifically in response to being told that despite how strong he thought he was, even he couldn't survive the journey alone. After surviving for the next 17 months alone in the forest, of which Nathan spent most of them sleeping, he returned to Percival early in 504 and told Alexis Solomon that he managed to survive on his own for most of the journey after his squad mates died early on. He declared that he wanted to transfer to the Regional Squad Corps, and the next month, took the retiring Craig Garrick's spot on Squad 12. He spent most of the next year with the squad, patrolling the Southern Via region. Breach of Wall Via In Hulun 505, shortly after To'kustars were spotted near Ateria, he came to the city with Squad SV12. After Wall Via was breached, he escorted a group of Aterians, including Hadria Carter, another Esper, to the neighboring city of Teviv with the help of his squad. After the group was attacked by Vance Grace and Tuesday Smith on the way to Teviv, he possessed Vance in order to ensure the group's safety. He later vouched for Tuesday when she betrayed Vance to join the group. When the group arrived at Teviv, he fought a giant To'kustar with the help of Tuesday and Hadria Carter, but the three were not able to kill it before it disappeared. After Nathan was safely in the city, he realized that one of the children from Teviv receiving training, Sophia Faraday, was the daughter of an old friend of his. As the two were walking home, Nathan was attacked by an unnamed Forever Knight, but saved by Trevor Faraday, his friend and Sophia's father. Early conflicts in Teviv While training, Nathan was confronted by Logan about the attack, but ultimately convinced Ryan that it didn't actually happen. Later, when Sophia was captured by the Knights, Nathan came up with a plan to rescue her without making the proposed hostage tradeoff. When he took Hadria to the abandoned coliseum, he confronted Maxwell Wagner, who didn't bring Sophia as expected. The two reached a standoff, so Nathan improvised by threatening to kill, and then actually shooting Hadria in the head, which proved to her that she was an Esper. Ryan witnessed this and freaked out, but after Nathan and Tuesday defeated Max, he explained everything to him. Shortly after the coliseum standoff, a To'kustar appeared in the city. Believing it to be a transformed Sven, Nathan prevented Penny Blair from continuing to attack it, and in doing so discovered that she was an Esper, too. When the officers discovered that Tuesday had gone missing, Nathan was the one who found her near the Forever Knights base. He helped her away from the base as Vladimir Czeswin, knowing that Nathan was an Esper, could only watch. After bringing her back to the base, he got into another argument with Logan and Samuel Wright about his secrets and whether Tuesday was to be trusted or not. Later that day, Nathan finally met with Hadria and Trevor to tell Hadria more about Espers, but the tavern where they were meeting exploded due to a bomb placed by the Forever Knights. In the aftermath, he fought with Vance and Andrew Knowles, and was winning until Andrew stabbed a sword through his back. Healing this injury exposed his powers and secrets to the team, causing him to run away in shame. He fled to Trevor's basement and told Penny he was never coming back. Battle of Teviv Even after the start of the Battle of Teviv and the Talking To'kustar breaching the city wall, Nathan was still considered to be missing by the officers and soldiers. Relationships Hadria Carter Nathan is quickly developing a strong friendship with Hadria. Hadria is one of the few people who know about Nathan's status as an Esper; however, she has gotten angry with him for not being more forthcoming about the powers of Espers, and there is a general lack of trust, especially after he ran away. Their relationship also goes beyond their identities as Espers, as they appear to share a similar sense of humor as well. Appearances Trivia References